Report: Japanese soldiers to train at Camp Pendleton

CAMP PENDLETON -- Marine Corps officials offered no details
Tuesday on a report that 125 Japanese soldiers are on their way to
Camp Pendleton for a month of training.

The joint exercise with U.S. Marines will be the first ever for
Japan, according to an Associated Press reporter based in Tokyo.
The wire service story was based on information from an anonymous
official in the Japanese Defense Agency.

The planned training exercise calls for troops to retake an
island captured by the enemy, according to the report. No live
ammunition is to be used in the training.

Questions about when the Japanese will arrive, where they will
train and stay, and other aspects of the joint exercise could not
be answered Tuesday by Marines in the Camp Pendleton public affairs
office.

The Marine Corps base covers 125,000 acres, with 17 miles of
coastline north from Oceanside to the Orange County border.

Tensions have increased between Japan and China in recent years
because of China's rapid rise as a military and economic power. The
two Asian countries are said to be sparring over a number of
issues, such as territory and foreign alliances.

The Camp Pendleton exercise is said to be part of an effort by
the Japanese to show a military presence in the small Japanese
islands southwest of Japan near the China mainland.

Many other U.S. allies -- particularly Australia, Canada and
Great Britain -- sometimes visit Camp Pendleton for joint training
exercises.

The United States has maintained a military presence in Japan
since the end of World War II in 1945. Today about 50,000 U.S.
troops are stationed there under a joint security pact.